• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

THE OLD WNEW-FM RECORD LIBRARY

K

kevinsealy

WNEW -FM for years has been known as having the largest rock record library of any radio station in the country.

It's been nine years since rock has been dropped from 102.7FM. Since then, we've seen four different music format changes including the current format with the station taking on new call letters.

There was no official count on how large the WNEW-FM record library was. But where are these LPs, CDs now, have they been given to the trash collectors?



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
I wonder about stuff like this too.

What happened to KMET's record collection in Los Angeles? Does KLOS in LA maintain all their old records, or did they stuff everything on a hard drive? How about WBCN in Boston?...
 
It's still there - I saw it about a year ago and it is glorious. That's also how they're able to play back those Muni clips on WNEW 102.7 HD2.

It is still locked down at the old WNEW studios (ahem Fresh...yea) but with slash card access only by a few select corporate dudes.

They aren't dumb. They know its valuable. It's just a matter of how they wind up unleashing it...
 
Bring it back- Scotso will be smiling in radio heaven!!!

warm590/ 590buddy ;D
 
Re: THE OLD WNEW-FM RECORD LIBRARY & Other Stations.

It's good to see posted that the old WNEW-FM record library hasn't been sent to the trash collectors, like what some radio stations do when the station makes a major format change.

I still would like to know what ever happened to WNEW-AM's and the rock WPLJ's record library.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
Didn't Opie & Anthony give away part of the music library soon after the switch to FM Talk or was that just some sort of a gimmick?
 
Re: THE OLD WNEW-FM RECORD LIBRARY & Other Stations.

Kevin L. Sealy said:
I still would like to know what ever happened to WNEW-AM's and the rock WPLJ's record library
Click to expand...

Since the format the format of WNEW AM moved to WQEW one would've assumed they purchased the music library. I remember reading when Arthur Liu launched the now-defunct Sunny 1430 he acquired the WQEW music library. Don't know what happened to it now that the station is LMA'd to Radio Cantico Nuevo. Who knows? Maybe the music is still sitting in a closet somewhere in the MultiCutural Broadcasting Complex. I know someone on the Long Island board said that 1580 WLIM's old Standards Music collection is still sitting in a closet in the WLIM building. Obviously the Hispanics who lease WLIM from PolNet have no use for the music. In fact they don't play mainstram Hispanic music on 1580 any more. They've gone the Spanish Religion Route a few weeks ago.
 
Re: THE OLD WNEW-FM RECORD LIBRARY & Other Stations.

I can't say I know where WNEW-AM's library is, but I do know WNEW-FM is still in the same two-floor suite that once house the AM side upstairs.

Kevin L. Sealy said:
It's good to see posted that the old WNEW-FM record library hasn't been sent to the trash collectors, like what some radio stations do when the station makes a major format change.

I still would like to know what ever happened to WNEW-AM's and the rock WPLJ's record library.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
Click to expand...
 
Re: THE OLD WNEW-FM RECORD LIBRARY & Other Stations.

"I can't say I know where WNEW-AM's library is, but I do know WNEW-FM is still in the same two-floor suite that once house the AM side upstairs."



Huh? Was WNEW-AM ever at 888?
Isn't Fresh co-located with WINS?
 
Yup, WINS is there (at least until the big Hudson Street move co-locating it with nearly every other CBS radio station downtown), but that complex dates back to 1985 and the Metromedia days. Both WNEWs moved to the 52nd street building in the mid-80s from the complex they had inhabited for years dating back to at least the 60s. WINS was owned by Group W (Westinghouse). From what I understand WINS simply moved into the old WNEW-AM floor upstairs upon Westinghouse's purchase of WNEW and WNEW-AM's subsequent demise.

And, to clarify your question, Fresh simply inhabits the old WNEW studios so Fresh didn't really "move in" anywhere. It's quite depressing actually considering the history of that place (Scott Muni's old office is still down the hall, plus all the great interviews those studio walls have witnessed).
 
What 52nd Street building? WINS & Fresh are on Seventh and 56th.
And during the 1990's, before the merger, NEW-FM was above the Automat on 42nd & Third.
Are we talking about the same radio station(s)?
The same city? ;)
 
"wrsurocks" is a little off on the facts. Here's how I understand it:

WINS has been in its present space (888 7th Ave, at 56th) since the early 80s, under first Westinghouse and then its successor, Infinity/CBS.

WNEW(AM) and WNEW-FM were at 560 Third Ave. under Metromedia. I think the FM went somewhere else briefly under its next owner, Legacy, and I'm pretty sure it didn't come to 7th and 56th, downstairs from WINS, until Westinghouse bought the Legacy stations circa 1986-87.

I'm quite certain WNEW(AM) was never at 888 Seventh.
 
Scott Fybush,

For the longest time (going back to the 1960's and may be even earlier), both WNEW-AM & FM were at 565 Fifth Avenue up until May 1979 when they moved to 655 Third Avenue. To my understanding the move was for WNEW-FM because they were running out of room for their record library.

WNEW-AM moved to 1700 Broadway around August of 1991 where then WYNY was housed because both stations were owned by Westwood One.

WNEW-FM moved from 655 Third Avenue around the early part of 1995 to 888 Seventh Avenue where WINS is. Both stations were owned by Westinghouse.


Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
I suppose I could be wrong, as I pieced it together from stories here and there! I also meant 54 not 52 for their current location.

Regardless, the record library at their current location is still damn awesome.
 
Yes, Kevin has it right - my failing memory somehow squished "565 Fifth Ave" and "655 Third Ave" together and came up with "560 Third Ave," which sounded wrong even as I was typing it. I think the Fifth Ave location was the one with the "WNEW" calls on the balcony outside?

WNEW(AM) signed off from 1700 B'way in 1993; WYNY packed up not too long after that and went across the river to Jersey City, where it remained (becoming WKTU) until Clear Channel combined all its NYC FMs down on lower Sixth Ave. last year.

That 1700 Broadway location had some interesting history to it, too - I believe it came out of the breakup of NBC Radio in 1988, with Emmis' WQHT (then on 103.5 from Astoria, Queens, in the space still occupied by WFAN, which uses the old FM studio as a production room) taking over 97.1 from NBC and the WYNY calls, now on 103.5, settling in at 1700 Broadway under WW1.

With all the recent CC studio moves, there aren't many commercial radio studios in NYC that are even in the same spaces they occupied in the eighties. (Q104 had been in the same space at 1180 Sixth Ave. since the early 70s until last year's move; WOR had been at 1440 Broadway, on different floors, since the twenties.)

I think the oldest ones remaining now, at least among the major commercial stations, are WABC/WPLJ at 2 Penn Plaza (late 80s-ish) and WINS at 888 Seventh Ave.
 
Scott Fybush said:
Yes, Kevin has it right - my failing memory somehow squished "565 Fifth Ave" and "655 Third Ave" together and came up with "560 Third Ave," which sounded wrong even as I was typing it. I think the Fifth Ave location was the one with the "WNEW" calls on the balcony outside?

WNEW(AM) signed off from 1700 B'way in 1993; WYNY packed up not too long after that and went across the river to Jersey City, where it remained (becoming WKTU) until Clear Channel combined all its NYC FMs down on lower Sixth Ave. last year.
Click to expand...

Hey, Scott, I can tell you from personal experience - when it comes to ALL things WNEW-AM, Kevin lives and breathes this stuff!! :)
 
Scott Fybush said:
That 1700 Broadway location had some interesting history to it, too - I believe it came out of the breakup of NBC Radio in 1988, with Emmis' WQHT (then on 103.5 from Astoria, Queens, in the space still occupied by WFAN, which uses the old FM studio as a production room) taking over 97.1 from NBC and the WYNY calls, now on 103.5, settling in at 1700 Broadway under WW1.
Click to expand...

Even before all that, the studios at 1700 were originally built for ABC SuperRadio in 1982. That was Rick Sklar's ill-fated satellite service that was supposed to take the WABC airstaff national. The NBC Radio Network moved there during a rebuild of 30 Rock.

The REAL question is what happened to the WNEW-AM archive? Maybe Kevin knows that one.
 
TheBigA,

>>>The REAL question is what happened to the WNEW-AM archive? Maybe Kevin knows that one.<<<

There are ONLY a few things I don't know about WNEW-AM (JUST KIDDING!)

The last thing I've heard about the WNEW-AM record library was that Arhtur Lui used it for his station Sunny 1430 WNSW when they were playing Standards.That's why I posted this question in a previous post.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom